Brothers never babied BC's Gerbe
ST. LOUIS -- His brothers were the reason he kept striving for more. Nathan Gerbe was willing to lace up his skates and venture onto the pond near his Oxford, Mich., home to endure countless two-on-one hockey competitions his older siblings invented for their pleasure and his pain because it was a way to be included in their universe.
He was the baby, six years behind Jeff and eight behind Joey, and he was always on the wrong end of the score. He was small, just like they were, but couldn't ever seem to match their strength, quickness, or smarts.
"Sometimes I'd get pretty down on myself," Gerbe said. "If I didn't dominate, I'd come home and say, 'Maybe I'm too small.' But Jeff and Joey wouldn't ever let me talk that way. They'd say, 'Hey, we're small, too, and we're doing it.' "
Joe played in the East Coast Hockey League and Ontario Hockey League. Jeff was playing for a top junior team. Nathan was a little kid and he was sure both of his brothers would wind up in the NHL.
"To this day," confessed Gerbe, who leads Boston College in total goals, game-winning goals, and shorthanded goals this season, "I still think they were better than me."
His brothers beg to differ. After all, it was Nathan who helped spur BC to an exhilarating 6-4 win over North Dakota in the semifinals of the Frozen Four Thursday to earn the Eagles the right to meet Michigan State tonight for the national championship.
Gerbe's lead pass to Ben Smith for the go-ahead goal to make it 3-2 was exquisite. Gerbe's goal, with 4:06 remaining to push BC in front again, 4-3, was clutch. And his empty-netter with 5.5 ticks left to seal it was merely an expression of joy.
Gerbe has stopped growing, tapping out at just over 5 feet 5 inches, but his stickhandling abilities and his ability to deceive defenses has long since negated talk of his stature.
"The biggest thing with him is how he changes speeds," explained Jeff Gerbe. "It's almost like he's manipulating the defense. He has to be that way, being short and all. You have to be sneaky.
"I watched him out there and he's come so far. But what's never changed is how much he just loves the game."
Nathan loved it so much that, as a boy, he wasn't content to watch Joe and Jeff's games. He'd insist on tagging along to practice, too.
"My practices were three hours away," Jeff said. "He'd make the drive with me anyway."
They would sing bad karaoke songs to make the time pass. Jeff would sprinkle in some hockey wisdom and Nathan would spread some of his contagious enthusiasm.
When Nathan Gerbe was 13 and playing midget majors, his father unexpectedly showed up at the rink. Gerbe remembers at the time thinking that was odd.
"He said, 'Come on, Nathan, we've got to go,' " Gerbe said. "I could tell something was wrong. I was afraid to ask what. My dad kept saying, 'Things are going to be OK.' "
They drove to a local hospital. Jeff had been in a car accident. The car had flipped on the highway. Was it a blown tire? A slippery road? Nathan can't recall. He's spent the better part of the past seven years trying to forget.
"It was bad," he said. "There was blood everywhere. Jeff was all bruised up. He was unconscious for two days. It was scary. Really scary. We just didn't know what would happen."
The family came together from all parts of the country. Joey left Canada and his hockey team to be by his brother's side. The three Gerbe sisters also dropped everything to keep watch over their brother. His parents rarely left Jeff's side.
Nathan knew his brother was strong. That's why he couldn't bring himself to go into that hospital room and see Jeff so still, and so broken. He stayed in the lobby, waiting for good news.
One day rolled into another. The Gerbes lost track of time. Sometimes they forgot to eat. They forgot about everything except Jeff.
"For the first time in my life, I wasn't thinking about hockey," Nathan Gerbe said. "At that time, I didn't care if I played again."
One day, while his baby brother paced in the lobby, Jeff woke up. He stayed in the hospital another week or so. He had suffered massive head trauma and his recovery would be slow. He needed extensive physical therapy, and there were days Nathan had to help him walk to the bathroom. At one point, the doctors explained to Jeff Gerbe his hockey career was over, but that didn't seem all that significant to anyone in his family.
"When something like that happens, it really hits you what matters," Nathan Gerbe said. "Hockey is just a little part of our lives. My family means more than any hockey game."
Although Jeff's career was over, young Nathan's had only just begun. He spent two years in the US National Team Development Program and captured a gold medal with the US national under-18 squad at the 2005 world championships in the Czech Republic. Last season, he tallied 11 goals and seven assists as a freshman with Boston College.
He is one of BC's most tantalizing talents, a wizard with the puck who flummoxes opponents with speed and deception. He no longer harbors doubts on whether he belongs. He's proving it to anyone who will watch what he does.
"I want my game to be exciting," Gerbe said. "I want people to say, 'I want to play like him.' Even though I'm small, I use that to my advantage. I do that for all the people who told me I couldn't do this."
His family never said that. Not Joe, or Jeff, or his parents, or his sisters. All his siblings will be present tonight when the Eagles attempt to win the national championship against Michigan State, which happens to be where his sister Breanne and brother Jeff go to school.
There are no conflicts regarding allegiances. The Gerbes are a BC family now, even with Michigan roots that run very deep. They were there Thursday night, cheering Nathan on, marveling at the skills that convinced the Buffalo Sabres to pick Gerbe in the fifth round of the 2005 NHL draft.
"That game Thursday night, it was the best I've ever seen him play," said Jeff Gerbe. "He played with so much intensity."
His little brother knows where that came from. It came from chasing Jeff and Joey across a tiny little pond in Oxford, Mich., when life was simple and hockey was fun, but family was -- and still is -- everything.
Jackie MacMullan is a Globe columnist. Her e-mail address is macmullan@globe.com. 